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“We here tomorrow?” I asked.

“All day. All night.”

“Then I’d rather just head back to our room.”

I squeezed his fingers suggestively between mine. Jason stopped for a second and pulled me close, hip to hip. Our cheeks touched as he pointed upward.

“Good. Because our hotel’s right there.”

Two blocks away, the Onyx towered over every other building in the large plaza. Sleek and black, its mirrored surface seemed to shimmer like liquid glass.

“You’re kidding!”

Jason’s arm went around my waist, his big palm sliding down over one smooth globe of my ass. Every muscle on that side of my body twitched with a jolt of excitement.

“Wanna bet?”

Eight

SAMMARA

>

I was breathless for the rest of the walk, tingling all over. I’d never known anyone who’d even been to the Onyx, much less spent the night there. It was all too perfect; the ride out, our romantic dinner, even the short, crisp walk through the neon streets. Any other girl would’ve been dying to stay out forever — to prolong the moment, and never let such a night end.

But all I could think about was peeling Jason’s clothes off.

The lobby was stunning, all marble and velvet and brass. We passed beneath its ornately vaulted ceiling, along plush red carpets and past blooms of fragrant flower arrangements before arriving at a large bank of elevators. Jason produced a black card from his inside pocket that matched the building. He inserted it into a slot and a minute later we were zooming upward, my stomach dropping pleasantly as the high-speed car whooshed us invisibly past dozens of floors.

“If this damn thing weren’t so fast we could fool around in here,” I joked.

Jason merely smirked and crushed me against his chest. The smell of his body was already driving me out of my mind.

“Penthouse?” I grinned, as we still continued upward.

“Something like that.”

The doors opened… into a room. An actual room! It was something I’d only seen in movies! I stepped out only when the shock wore off, my legs trembling like a newborn doe.

“You’ve gotta be kidding…”

Jason stepped forward along the polished floor, through a gargantuan common area with enough couches to seat a dozen people. I saw our bags on a luggage stand, set off to one side. Three marble steps led up to a bedchamber. The bed — covered with luxurious linens — was so high up off the floor I’d have to vault into it like a track star.

But the main feature of the sprawling room was its view. Floor to ceiling, a long, sweeping bank of crystal-paned windows gave us a spectacular panorama. The entire city lay sprawled out beneath us, lights twinkling like multi-colored jewels as far as the eye could see.

“Oh my GOD, Jason!” It was incredible. Beyond incredible.

No, this was berserk.

“This must’ve cost a fortune!”

I turned and he was already out of his shoes. He was in the process of lifting his shirt over his head, exposing a physique that easily put half the men on American Ninja Warrior to shame.

“I have a friend wrapped up in this place,” he said simply. “He… owes me.”

My jaw was still dragging the floor. I picked it up. “Owes you?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “All this is great…” he said, looking around, “but trust me, it only makes a dent in his debt.”